1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a safety monitoring system of a galley (kitchen equipment) installed in a cabin of an aircraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
A galley installed in a cabin of an aircraft includes a space for housing service carts for serving food and drink to passengers and includes turn levers called turn retainers for keeping the carts in predetermined positions.
The galley further includes a large number of box-shaped compartments for housing food, cooking equipment, and the like, and hinged doors are arranged on front sides of the compartments. The hinged doors include handles for opening and closing and include latches that slide in a transverse direction to lock the hinged doors in closed positions.
During takeoff and landing of the aircraft, it is obliged to confirm that the turn retainers are in predetermined closed positions and that the latches are in closed positions, in order to prevent the carts from flying out and to prevent the hinged doors from opening. Although the safety inspection in the galley is work of cabin attendants, a failure such as an oversight tends to occur because the inspection is visually performed.
An increase in the number of takeoffs and landings of recent years represented by LCC is imposing excessive burden on the cabin attendants.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-88927 and National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2007-528645 disclose installation of a monitoring camera in the aircraft.
An object of the present invention is to provide a system for improving the safety and reducing the burden of work of cabin attendants by installing a monitoring camera in a galley to optically monitor positions of turn retainers and latches and wirelessly reporting the status to the cabin attendants.